Pesach: A Consciousness of Miracles

March 29, 2018

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Pesach (Passover) begins tomorrow night, and the kabbalists teach that it presents us with an opportunity that we only get one day a year. The opportunity for each of us is to disconnect completely from negativity. Negativity is all things that do not elevate us, that create separation between ourselves and other people, and that create separation between ourselves and our connection to the Creator. Pesach is the window in time when, through our consciousness, we can achieve a total unification with the Light of the Creator, and a total separation from darkness, chaos, and pain.

But how, exactly, do we do this?

It begins with an understanding of consciousness. When our consciousness is in the right place, we experience the highest expressions of ourselves, of others, and of the entire world. We have the ability to bring about blessings, healing, unconditional love, and freedom. We have the power to create miracles. We often get tripped up thinking that these monumental things require monumental effort when, in fact, the beginning of their creation lies in the smallest of actions: shifting our consciousness to joy. Again, it sounds tiny, microscopic even. But it really isn’t. And on Pesach, the Creator mimics our consciousness.

An example of this is found in the story of the Israelites. Pesach lasts for seven days, and it was on the 7th day that the Israelites first awakened a miracle with their own Light. Rav Brandwein, in a letter to Rav Berg, explained that the Light of the Creator is like our shadow. As we behave, so does our shadow. So when the Israelites came to the sea with the Egyptians chasing them, ready to kill them all, and they were trapped, the Israelites called out to the Creator for his assistance. The Creator assured them that they had the ability to create the miracle for themselves. This provided the shift in consciousness necessary and the Creator matched it, making a path where once there was none.

Consciousness is an incredibly powerful thing. Rav Berg said time and again that “consciousness is everything.” Interestingly, philosophy is also beginning to support this belief.

Panpsychism is the view that consciousness is a universal and primordial feature of all things. Philip Goff, a philosophy professor at Central European University in Budapest, explains that it is a fundamental feature of physical matter; every single particle in existence has an “unimaginably simple” form of consciousness. These particles then come together to form more complex forms of consciousness, such as humans’ subjective experiences. Now, they aren’t saying that every single thing, from a rock to a table, is coherent or actively thinks for itself. Instead, that there is an inherently subjective experience of consciousness in even the tiniest of life’s particles.

What sets the human mind apart from everything else that is consciousness is that we have the power of choice. We have the power to direct and redirect our consciousness however we want to by shifting our perspective. It reminds me of the famous quote from world-renowned author and speaker, Wayne Dyer, “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” When we choose a consciousness of love, we see love. When we choose a consciousness of joy, we see joyfulness. When we choose a consciousness of miracles, we see the miraculous.

Try it. Think of a stressful or otherwise negative experience you have had in the past. Bring it fully into your mind. Now ask yourself “how does this situation change if I try to see it as positive?”

I’m willing to bet that a few positives arose in your mind, even small ones. Begin to apply a positive perspective, a consciousness of joy, gratitude, or kindness to each day, and you will begin to see your entire life change before your eyes. Connecting to the power of Pesach amplifies this positivity tenfold.

Kabbalists explain that the Light is so unnaturally abundant on the first day of Pesach that any negativity that we have attached ourselves to is dissolved. The consequences of jealousy, negative words, and actions from the past year have the chance to be wiped away. All from bringing awareness to our consciousness and redirecting it towards joy and love.

It is not up to the Creator to change our nature, that is our work. We make the change, and like our shadow, the Creator will behave in the same way that we do. The greatest change that we are meant to make is to give up our desire to receive for the self alone. Luckily, when we choose a consciousness of joy, we align ourselves with the energy of the Light, the desire to receive in order to share.

To begin to create great miracles in our own right, we must change our nature, and shift our consciousness. From that place, we earn the power and ability to change the nature of our world. That’s the possibility inherent in our consciousness and especially in this window of time known as Pesach.

THOUGHT INTO ACTION

When did you connect to negativity in the last year? Where were you jealous, angry, judgmental? In preparation for Pesach, look upon these things with a consciousness of love and watch the negativity dissolve.